Definition, please...

It's been a funny presidential race so far, right? Or, as the new york times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd points out, a not funny race. She, and other people apparently, suggest that the reason there haven't been very many jokes made about the Democratic candidate is because Barack Obama is black. So far, everything about the election has been because Barack Obama is black. John Lewis ran contended for the first time in a billion elections because he is also black and he supported Hillary Clinton initially. (Oh, wait, of course you're right. Not everything about the election has been because Barack Obama is black. There's also the fact that Hillary Clinton is a woman.) Everyone is very cautious but everyone, particularly the public opinion mass-entity referred to as the media, is in love with the easy shot. Give the candidates a quick once-over. Just open your eyes and then close them again. Now, make your judgements. Al Gore has a tan, go. Now he's gained weight, go. John Kerry has a long face and he's boring, go go go. Barack Obama is, holy shit, he's black! Can't see...can't notice anything else...blinded by unexpected race...
Jimmy Kimmel apparently referred to peoples' reluctance to make fun of Barack Obama as "reverse racism." Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but, does the term "reverse racism" seem racist to anyone else? Here's the Merriam-Webster definition of racism:

Main Entry:

rac·ism

Pronunciation:
\ˈrā-ˌsi-zəm also -ˌshi-\

Function:

noun

Date:

1933

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2 : racial prejudice or discrimination — rac·ist \-sist also -shist\ noun or adjective

(Did you notice that the term "racism" got its start in 1933? So, just before the second world war, during the depression. Fascinating.) What, pray tell, makes this situation reverse racism? The fact that people are so afraid that their racism will surface that they're overcompensating by just not talking at all? Or is Mr. Kimmell somehow implying that black people, in general, are immune to media ridicule while white people suffer this sort of abuse on a daily basis and that this is unfair? Thus using one of the classical interpretations of "reverse racism," which is when white people are discriminated against in a horrible turn of unjust misunderstanding of the "reality," which is that white people are better than everyone else. Or maybe Mr. Kimmell calls this reverse racism because he is implying that we all like this man exclusively because he's black and not because he's the first politician in most of our lifetimes who has made it so far in politics while still speaking in plain straightforward language as if everyone listening actually has a brain in his/her head?
I'm here to promote the other thesis set forth by Ms. Dowd (and apparently Bill Carter):

because many in [comedians' and satirists'] audiences are intoxicated by him and resistant to seeing him skewered

At this point, Maureen suggests that, if we elect someone who isn't bafoonish to the point of absurdity, "it won’t be the economy that’s depressed. It will be the rest of us." I beg to differ Ms. Dowd. I'm looking forward to an administration where we can comfort ourselves by knowing that our future as Americans is secure, rather than having to resort to making a list of all the stupid things our president has said so that we can laugh instead of putting a gun in our collective mouth.